Nvidia preparing to launch Ion 2 chipset this year

According to Fudzilla, a higher-up at Nvidia has confirmed that the company is planning to begin shipping its Ion 2 chipset before the year's end -- a rumor that surface over the summer. Along with a die shrink, the second-generation chipset is reportedly much faster and accompanied by about twice as many shaders.

Ion (commonly referred to as the GeForce 9400M chipset), has been a staple for many netbook and nettop makers, providing Intel's lightweight Atom platform with enough muscle to tackle things like 1080p video playback. Ion 2 will bring support for the VIA Nano, as well as the typical Pentium 4-compatible processors. I haven't caught wind of any official time-frame from Nvidia, but we'll be sure to follow-up accordingly.

This news comes days after the company announced it would halt chipset development for Intel DMI processors, which would imply that the Ion 2 will lack support for Intel Nehalem/Westmere-based chips.